Games of the Week: Minesweeper Has Come a Long Way Since Minesweeper
Hello, and welcome back to games of the week where we have ten minutes or less to talk about I mean, we have ten minutes tops. We can do or less if we want to talk about whatever games we've been playing this week. And, this week as in not necessarily this week, but in the past, we have been playing minesweeper. And by we, I mean me and Jan. Hello, Jan.
Jan:Hello. I am me.
Jackie:Yeah. I'm Jan. That's me.
Jan:Yeah. We are Jan.
Jackie:We are Jan. We are the collective Jan. So what what form of minesweeper have you been playing most frequently on your phone?
Jan:So two, really. First one is infinite minesweeper.
Jackie:Yes. Yes. Yes. That's the one I have been playing.
Jan:Yes. Very big board, very big minesweeper. Lots of mines to sweep. Yes. The second one, presumably, you can talk about that one later.
Jan:The second one is Fill A Pix, which technically says it's Minesweeper, but really it's the object of the game is more to, find the mines Yeah. Not to avoid them, but to actively click on them.
Jackie:Yeah. I downloaded it. And for one, whenever I first started it, the tutorial didn't load, and I tried figuring it out on my own, and that didn't work. And, thankfully, I was able to to go and and reactivate the tutorial again. It's, it's a weird one.
Jan:It is a weird one. It's it's sort of like, the the multiple Picross, apps, but, like, using Minesweeper instead.
Jackie:Yeah. That is what I thought. It's like, you know, I know Jan said this was Minesweeper, but just looking at this, it kinda looks like picross. But it's it's I guess it's, like, kind of a merge of both.
Jan:Yeah.
Jackie:It does help that, like, the first one that you do is called stairs, which really helps you figure out what the fuck you're doing. So looking at the names of the thing can really be like, okay. I I gotta get what shape I'm going for. So I, I'm I'm understanding more how the rules work again.
Jan:Yeah. There's also the fact that the hint system is very forgiving.
Jackie:I did, turn on the, it will tell you when it's wrong thing.
Jan:I I honestly didn't know that was a setting. I just manually opened the hints to be like, oh, well Yeah. And then I just click the fix errors button and go on my merry way.
Jackie:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's that's fair. I haven't messed with the hints yet, but, I mean, it's, like, same effect, basically.
Jan:Yeah.
Jackie:So you're you're pretty deep into it. I've only played the the first few. I just downloaded it, like, an hour ago.
Jan:I mean, yeah. Pre pretty deep into it. Like, about 50 No. About 75 in. Because each, each of the, like, available ones at the start have 25 puzzles in them.
Jackie:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jan:So I'm about halfway through the third one. So it's, like, 60 something.
Jackie:Nice. Yeah. It's, I think I'll stick to regular Minesweeper just because I have a harder time figuring out this, but it is it is it is interesting, and I do like how forgiving it is with stuff, and it's not, like, ads every two seconds.
Jan:Yes. That's also extremely appreciated.
Jackie:Whereas infinite minesweeper, technically, you can have no ads because, like, I mean, it starts out with ads, and then you can buy to get rid of ads. But if you Yeah. If you, fuck up a a square because infinite minesweeper is is like, it's still like, it's not just, like, one giant board. It's a bunch of boards next to each other to make one, infinite board. Mhmm.
Jackie:And if you fuck up, like, one of the squares, you either have to pay gems or, watch an ad in order to, activate that square again, or you can, solve every other square around it.
Jan:Yes. That's the one I prefer doing.
Jackie:Yeah. But when you fuck up two in a row
Jan:Yeah. Well, actually, when you fuck up two in a row, it does just, like, add on more. But if you still fill the entire, like, border, it still if you fill in the entire border, they are still, like, made available again.
Jackie:Oh, well, I mean, like, if they're, like, consecutive next to each other, they're not. Right?
Jan:No. Even then.
Jackie:Oh, I thought I had done that, but maybe I haven't.
Jan:Yeah. No. It's just a massive, it it just grows way bigger.
Jackie:Right. Like, I know the whole thing grows way bigger. I just didn't know, like, you could reactivate it. Like, if you fuck up a board, that that board is locked until you do everything consecutive next to it. But if you fuck up two consecutive next to each other, can you I don't you know what?
Jackie:Yeah. It doesn't matter. The point is, like, you can do ads. You can do, boards next to each other, or you can, pay gems, which you find on the board, and then you can also, pay money for. So, like, if you're good at Minesweeper, you don't need to worry about paying for anything or ads because there's other things you can use, gems on, like, different board colors, which I only recently figured out.
Jan:Oh, now that said, it does also I mean, you you will still have to pay to remove the ads.
Jackie:Oh, yeah. To get rid of ads initially. I did that so early on. I I keep forgetting to to mention it. Yes.
Jackie:You do still get ads unless you, unless you pay to get rid of them. Yeah.
Jan:But it would periodically just go ad break. And Yeah.
Jackie:Yeah. But it's it's still a lot of fun. Oh my god, Vincent.
Jackie:I can't play right now. I'm interrupting my pod-- my ten minutes, my limited time, but it's it's still good. I I still really like it, and I'll go in there to just, like, you know, just have, like, dozens of boards I can't touch without, watching ads and just, like, fuck it. We go forward.
Jan:Yeah.
Jackie:And with this limited amount of time, I do wanna mention Dragon Sweeper, which, you know, doesn't super count because it is a browser game, but it has also, like, made it to where you can play it on mobile. Like, it it it works on the mobile browser.
Jan:What is a browser game except a mobile for PC games?
Jackie:Right. Like, I mean, that's how, like, adventure capitalism and a bunch of other games, started out, as as browser games initially. I just I just can't talk about Minesweeper without talking about the game that has been destroying my life. The it's Dragon Sweeper. It's on, itch.io.
Jackie:It it it it does have someone has made a fake mobile app, so do not get that. It is not by the same person. I I should say that since I mentioned this on a a mobile game podcast is there is a a fake one out there. But it is a minesweeper, except you are, there are mines, but there are also, like, enemies you have to fight and you have health. And there's, like, patterns that you have to recognize or scroll down and read the comments for other people to tell you what the patterns are so then you can figure it out.
Jackie:And, there are different achievements for, like, a board clear or for, like, certain pacifist- esque runs. And the creator is, like, constantly updating it. Like, usually just, like, in little bits. There hasn't been, like, a major update in a few days, but, I don't know. It's a it's a cool game, and I guess this is just our Minesweeper era.
Jan:Finally grown old. That's that's what happens.
Jackie:Right. Like, I used to it's so funny because I fucking hated Minesweeper. Like, you know, in the early days, whenever you're waiting for the Internet to connect and your computer to finish starting up, you would just, like, play the games already installed on Windows. And I tried out Minesweeper and FreeCell and everything, and FreeCell wasn't too bad. But, it it was really all just just pinball all the way down.
Jan:Yeah.
Jackie:But mine minesweeper, good, actually.
Jan:Who'd have thought? Which
Jackie:which do you prefer? Do you prefer infinite minesweeper or, the the Fill a Pix?
Jan:Fill a Pix. I honestly, Fill a Pix is not Minesweeper. I know what it says, but it's not. But I I honestly I'm finding myself playing Fill a Pix more. Yeah.
Jan:And maybe that's just, like, recency bias because I've very I've more recently downloaded Fill a Pix than Infinite Minesweeper.
Jackie:Mhmm.
Jan:But, like, no. I I do find myself playing Fill a Pix more.
Jackie:Yeah. Maybe it's the nonogram pretty picture of it all. Like, you're you there's something to show for it at the end.
Jan:I do love a good nonogram.
Jackie:Yeah. Nonograms are so good. I need to get back into those and find find some good ones that aren't so ad and and purchase heavy.
Jan:Yeah.
Jackie:But, anyway, we are, basically out of time. Go play minesweeper. All of them. Any minesweeper.
Jan:This was the moral.
Jackie:Yeah. We'll see you next week. Bye bye.
